Extinction
The Kosrae Crake is only known by two specimens taken by von Kittlitz in December 1827 in the swamps of Kosrae. The two skins are now in the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. The story of its extinction is similar to the vanishing of the Kosrae Starling (another extinct species from Kosrae). Even in 1828 von Kittlitz described this bird as uncommon. German ornithologist Otto Finsch failed to find this bird on his expedition in 1880 and also the Whitney South Seas Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History in 1931 remained unsuccessful on a survey after that species. They became apparently victims of rats which had overrun Kosrae after they were able to escape from missionary and whaling vessels which were careened on the beach of Kosrae.
Read more about this topic: Kosrae Crake
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